La Magna
Large plank timber gridshell
Strength and simplicity in a single-layer grid shell.
Gridshells gain their strength from the double curvature configuration. In this case, the curvature emerges during the deployment from a flat grid to an expanded curved grid by the special layout of planks.
These planks are following at all moment geodesic curves over a virtual surface, which share the normal with the surface at all times. This means that intersecting geodesics will share their normals, enabling the joint's simplicity with a simple bolt, in the direction of the shared normal.
AO Aula Oberta La is a timber gridshell composed of LVL planks and a steel arched support.
The timber gridshell is formed by the elastic transformation during the deployment on-site. This enables the gridshell to be prefabricated and transported flat and compact. These two features are key to guaranteeing precision and cost reduction.
Low-carbon footprint fabrication and assembly
Adaptation to any floorplan
The system can adapt to a myriad of underlying surfaces and can vary the density according to loads. It can also vary the overall dimensions. The surface can be both of positive curvature (sinclastic) or negative curvature (anticlastic). In order to meet specific covering demants, the target surface can also have varying curvature and a custom perimeter.
Custom supports and perimeter
Depending on the requirements, both supports and perimeter can vary in aspect, shape and heights
Gridshell Kinetic transformation
The grid mat, specially designed to be transported in standard trailers, arrives flat and compact. Potentially several grids can be transported and assembled at the same operation.
The deployment is merely a simple vertical movement by a crane, connected to a fixed spreader beam connecting cables to the grid. These cables are in the opening direction of the grid helping the expansion. There is a final equilibrium between the elastic energy of the timber planks and the potential energy, that approximates the target shape. Then the boundary vertices are connected to the supports.
Transportability
Footprint 87 m²
Covered area 70 m²
Flooring 42 m²
Compact assembly
Gridshell and support structure are designed to be fully prefabricated and have a short on-site assembly time, with very few different parts.
The gridshell consists of planks and bolts, while the support arches are steel curved tubes with folded plates in their exact location and orientation.
Single-day construction and single crane.
3. The grid is deployed and installed with the same crane.
4. Finally, the membrane is unrolled on top and stretched.
Once ground support is fixed, the support feet are installed with a crane and validated by georeferencing.
Then the same crane positions every arch which gets simply connected with bolts, while the the gridshell gets unloaded close to the structure.
